The Bittersweet Melody
by Kyun3
Summary: Ulquiorra is a famous pianist who has pushed everything and everyone away from his life. What happens when someone tries to break his shell? AU.
1. Chapter 1

**_The __Bittersweet __Melody_**

It was an old piano. It was white, and the golden letters on it told the brand was Yamaha.

Ulquiorra sat down and gently laid his fingers on the petals. He started playing a simple melody, which brought back old memories.

"_Here you are again, eh?"_

"_What do you care, trash? Go away."_

_The tall figure went away, leaving the short raven-haired man alone with his instrument._

_A miserable sigh escaped the black-and-white lips._

It had been such a long time ago. Back then Ulquiorra hadn't been able to see anything else than his career.

No one listens to classic music anymore. No one goes to see his concerts. He had become a fallen star, the tabloids trying to find scandals from everywhere around him.

The pale man suddenly stopped playing the melody. The sun had set behind the huge windows of the living room. The deep blue curtains looked like they were black, so dark it was.

Ulquiorra walked across the room to turn on the lights. He was wearing a dark green polo-neck shirt and black jeans, his white feet bare. The black toenails looked like little olives.

The white walls of the living room were naked, no photos, no art, nothing. Only the walls were standing quietly. Actually, the room had nothing than Ulquiorra's piano and a wooden chair in it. In Ulquiorra's opinion TV was trash, just like many, many other things in life.

It was night, and Ulquiorra lay on his bed, not able to sleep. He had an interview on the radio next day, and he was a bit nervous, because talking was really not his best ability.

Next morning Ulquiorra left his huge lonely house early in the morning, and drove off with his black Audi.

The Kiss FM-radio station's studio was in a skyscraper with mirror-windows. Ulquiorra was escorted to the studio by a young woman with bright orange hair, after he had told his name at the information desk at the entrance.

The studio was far larger than the pale musician had expected, he'd have got lost if the orange haired woman wasn't there.

"So, mister Schiffer, welcome to Kiss FM! How are you today?"

Ulquiorra stared at the man interviewing him blankly. "I'm okay."

"I see, that's great", the man said faking a smile. "Our listeners have sent us a huge amount of questions for you, and I'm going to read some of them now, before we listen to some music."

The musician nodded and said to the microphone: "Very well."

"So, first question. This is from a girl, who comes from Berlin…Here we go! 'Dear Ulquiorra Schiffer, I would like to know if you know how much fans you have all over the world, because here in Berlin there's a fan club with almost million members."

Ulquiorra was slightly surprised that he had so many fans, because he really didn't play for the audience, even if the audience came only to listen to him, he played only for himself. For him, music was the only way he could express himself without being misunderstood.

"Well…" he started. " I don't really care how much fans I have, because I don't know them and they don't know the real me. I'm not interested in being famous, the music I play is more important."

The interviewer was in shock because of the famous pianist's answer.

* * *

Author's Note:

Hello, hello, everyone. It's been such a while since I last wrote some fanfiction. This is the first of five chapters of The Bittersweet Melody, please look forward to the next chapters! Grimmjow will make his apperance in the next chapter...


	2. Chapter 2

"_I wish someone someday understands me without ever having heard me play…"_

This thought passed Ulquiorra's mind during the interview at Kiss FM. The interview was slowly pissing him off. He drummed the table with his fingers, answering to the listeners' questions as fast and shortly as he could.

Finally the interview was over. The short musician stood up and shook hands with the interviewer.

The orange-haired woman from before had waited for him, and now she led him back to the elevators, and then down to the first floor. Ulquiorra nodded to her as a thanks, and walked away to get his car from a nearby parking hall.

The parking hall was a shiny, futuristic building surrounded by skyscrapers and hotels. It had way too expensive prices, but Ulquiorra had left the car there, because he believed the place to be safe. When he found his car from the large hall after few moments of searching, he quickly noticed there was someone sitting on his dear car.

"Hello, Ulquiorra! It's been a while, hasn't it?"

Ulquiorra didn't recognize the blue-haired man sitting on his car, even though he seemed somehow familiar. "Excuse me, but who might you be? And why are you sitting on my car?"

The blue-haired man's eyes widened. "You don't remember me?"

"I have no idea of who you are."

"Oh, shit. My name's Grimmjow. Does it ring any bells in your head?"

Ulquiorra shook his head. He was sure that he had never seen this weird man before. "Could you please get off my car?"

Grimmjow jumped off the car, looking disappointed. He was wearing white tight-fit jeans and a light-blue hooded college-shirt. He had a huge shining diamond ear stud on his left ear. He ran his fingers through his electric blue hair, lost in his thoughts.

Ulquiorra walked nearer the car, he was going to leave Grimmjow the Weirdo to the parking hall. The moment he opened the car's doors with his key, Grimmjow swung the other door open and sat in. Ulquiorra stared at him for a moment. Then he sighed deeply and sat to the driver's place. "I have no idea of who this man is, but somehow… he feels familiar. As if we have met, a long, long time ago. "

Ulquiorra turned on the engine; the soft purring voice of the motor filled the car. He leaned backward. The voice was relaxing in its own way. He looked at the man sitting next to him. Grimmjow was looking at him too.

"You didn't even have the driver's license back then…"

Ulquiorra's eyes widened. Was this stranger some kind of childhood friend or class mate from his early years?

"Hey, um… Grimmjow, was it? Do you mind telling me when exactly did we meet last time?"

The man with electric blue hair rolled his eyes. "You really don't remember, eh?"

Ulquiorra shook his head.

"We were in the same high school, you know? I confessed my love to you in our senior-year! You really forgot about me?!"

Oh, that rang some bells in Ulquiorra's little head.

He remembered a tall blue-haired punk-boy from his chemistry-class, who always was napping during the lesson. It had been the night after the prom when the boy had come to Ulquiorra's house. Ulquiorra's mother had opened the door.

"Ulquiorra, darling, here's some friend of yours who wants to see you." The raven-haired boy had been playing his piano, so he hadn't heard his mother. His mother had let the blue-haired boy in and led him to the room Ulquiorra was playing in.

"Um…Hey, Schiffer. I know we didn't really talk much in the chemistry class; the teacher was such a bitch, so I always napped. But there was this one thing I really wanted to tell you…"

Ulquiorra had then stopped playing, paying all his attention to the other boy.

"I…I've fallen for you!"

"Excuse me?" Ulquiorra was sure he hadn't heard correctly.

"I'm fucking in love with you!" The boy blushed deeply.

Ulquiorra had stood up and walked to face the boy with electric blue hair.

"Are you serious? Is this not some stupid joke you and your mates have planned up just to see if the rumors are true?"

There had been many mean rumors about Ulquiorra being gay in their high school, mainly because he was playing his piano so passionately. He never had seemed to be interested in the opposite sex.

Grimmjow had blushed again scarlet red, but had confessed: "I'm serious about this."

Ulquiorra had sighed deeply and turned his back to the other. "I'm sorry. I don't think I'm interested in being in a relationship."

"Let's be friends, then? Okay?"

Ulquiorra had turned back to Grimmjow. "Friends?"

"Yeah, let's hang around together. Get to know each other better, do things that normal friends do."

Ulquiorra had been a little confused and unsure. "Okay. Let's try that."

"Okay. Great. See you, I have to go now. I'll call you, I got your number from the school."

"Good night, Jeagerjaques."

The two boys had spent some time together that summer, but when the schools started again, Ulquiorra had moved to another town with his parents. The pale boy had quickly forgotten about the boy who confessed his love for him.

* * *

_Author's note:_

_So, how did you like it? Please comment and review! I can't promise when I upload the third chapter, but please, wait patiently. I really liked writing this chapter, mainly because of Grimmjow's love confenssion. See you next time!_


	3. Chapter 3

It was quiet in the car. Grimmjow stared out of the car window, wondering if Ulquiorra remembered him or not. Ulquiorra was not calm at all, even if his face hid his emotions very well. How could he have forgotten about this man? He looked at Grimmjow from the corner of his eyes. The tall man was muscular, handsome and looked like some kind of celebrity. The diamond on his ear was shining in the rays of mid-day sun.

"Hey, where are we going?" The tall man asked.

Ulquiorra kept his gaze to the road. "To my house."

Grimmjow's azure blue eyes widened. "What? We're going to your house?!"

"I do not know why you came with me to the car. It was your own decision. Actually, I do not even care if you are here or not. If you are wishing to see my house, well then, you may come along. But if not, please say so, I'll find a place to stop, so you can get out of the car and continue your life like nothing happened." For Ulquiorra these words were hard to say, because, in fact, he was sometimes more than a little lonely in his huge house. Somehow he wished for the muscular blue-haired man to stay.

His wish was granted. Grimmjow didn't tell him to stop the car, so they drove to Ulquiorra's house. When Grimmjow saw the enormous house, he was awestruck. "Wow…" he whispered.

"Do you like it?" Ulquiorra kept his voice in the normal monotone, but he was glad that the other man liked his home.

"Sure. Wow, it's really an amazing house! It's like some kind of palace! So huge…" Grimmjow was excited like a small child. Ulquiorra let the smallest of smirks show on his lips when Grimmjow didn't notice. A palace…

Ulquiorra searched for his keys from his pockets. He didn't find them.

Grimmjow grinned widely. "Are you looking for these, perhaps?" The keys were hanging from his palm, shimmering in the sun.

"Yes, thank you. How did you get these?"

The grin widened even more. "I took them from the car, you forgot them there."

"Oh…" was all Ulquiorra could say. He took the keys from Grimmjow's hand and opened the door. After they got in, he asked: "Do you drink coffee? Or do you prefer tea?"

Grimmjow shrugged. "Well, I do drink coffee sometimes. Which do you drink?"

"I prefer tea over coffee."

"Then I'll drink tea too."

Some minutes later Ulquiorra poured the steaming hot tea to Grimmjow's mug. The tall man took a sip and sighed. "You call this tea? No way."

Ulquiorra frowned at him. "What do you do for your living? Are you some kind of tea expert?"

Grimmjow burst in laughter. "What the hell is a tea expert?! "

"A person, who analyzes tea and it's flavorings for living, is called a tea expert."

"I can't believe someone actually could do that all the time."

Ulquiorra shrugged, and repeated his earlier question. "What do you do for your living?" He was expecting the man with electric-blue hair and sky-blue eyes to work in fashion industry, music business or something like that.

Grimmjow looked somehow embarrassed. "Eh…Actually, I'm a sales assistant in a jewelry shop."

He was working in a jewelry shop?! Ulquiorra frowned again and sipped his own tea. In his opinion, it tasted just like proper tea should; fruity and a little bitter. He had no clue, why the other man disliked it.

Ulquiorra was curious about this man from his past. How had he found him? Why had Grimmjow appeared back to his life? What does he want from the short black-haired musician?

Grimmjow cleared his throat. "What are you thinking?"

Ulquiorra looked at him blankly. "It's none of your business."

Grimmjow rolled his eyes and took another sip of the tea he disliked oh, so much. "If you're happening to wonder what the heck I'm doing here, I'm willing to tell you."

The short man didn't answer him, just looked at him with those emerald green eyes of his.

"My friend, who is obsessed with celebrities, works in that parking hall where you left your car today. When he saw you from the cameras, he called me right away. When I got there, he almost dragged me to see your car. Then we heard your interview from my friend's portable radio, and I thought "well, this is probably my only chance to ever see you again", so I decided to wait for you."

No reaction appeared on the pale musicians features. Grimmjow thought that he wasn't even interested about his reasons to be there.

It was quiet for few moments, Grimmjow felt uneasy and somehow angry towards the other man.

"I've had enough! I'm going now", the man with sea-blue eyes snapped. Ulquiorra's emerald eyes widened, but he didn't say anything nor tried to stop Grimmjow.

When Grimmjow was just about to exit the musician's house, Ulquiorra opened his mouth. "The nearest metro station is over a kilometer that way", he said and pointed with his index finger to the right direction. Grimmjow looked extremely bitter as he marched out of the house.

"I hate you, Ulquiorra. I can't believe that I ever loved you!" Those were the last words Ulquiorra heard from Grimmjow's lips for a long time.

* * *

In the evening, Ulquiorra sat in front of his piano, thinking. What had he done wrong? He had tried to be friendly to the other man, even talking with him about things he couldn't care less of. Why had he gotten angry?


	4. Chapter 4

"Ah… Grimmjow… ah... aah…"

"Shh… Quiet now. Someone will call the police, if we make too much noise in here."

Grimmjow gently kissed the pale man under him. He ran his fingers through the jet-black hair. It felt silky and smelled oh, so good. The half lidded emerald green eyes looked at the muscular tanned man with a soft expression.

"Please…Don't stop yet…"

And the wish was granted.

_How had Ulquiorra ended up in an intimate situation with Grimmjow Jeagerjaques?_

_To find out, we'll have to travel in time._

Three years since Ulquiorra Schiffer had encountered with Grimmjow Jeagerjaques, Ulquiorra had stopped playing his piano for audiences. His fans had disappeared, bit by bit. He knew that they wouldn't forget him, but it was time for him to move on.

Grimmjow had become the manager of his own shop, called Sapphire Six. The shop sold luxurious fashion accessory, such as jewelry, wallets, handbags, belts and other goods. Grimmjow had quickly become famous in the whole country, every celebrity worth knowing knew him, or at least they thought so. And he had money. Partying was Grimmjow's favorite hobby, and drinking lots and lots of champagne was never a problem for him.

They had almost literally bumped into each other in downtown, when Ulquiorra had been wandering around. Grimmjow had been standing in front of a club, smoking and looking cool. There was a small crowd of rich and famous people around him. Ulquiorra hadn't noticed the man with the out-standing electric blue hair, when he was passing by the club. But there was no way, that Grimmjow wouldn't notice and recognize Ulquiorra. The muscular shop-manager was so surprised to see his ex-crush, that he dropped his cigarette.

"Ulquiorra?!"

The short musician lifted his gaze from the street.

The crowd around Grimmjow stared at Ulquiorra; they didn't seem to know who Ulquiorra was. The pale man turned and walked away. Suddenly he hated all people in the world. And Grimmjow was one of those, who Ulquiorra absolutely didn't want to meet at the moment.

"Hey, Ulquiorra! Wait! I need to tell you something!"

Ulquiorra ignored the voice about twenty meters behind him. He kept on walking, and made his pace faster. There was the noise of running getting closer. Ulquiorra started to run too, he wanted to get out of the whole situation as quickly as possible.

"Hey! Wait!"

The musician turned to a small street and kept on running. His chaser was going to catch him. Tanned fingers grabbed his wrist. Ulquiorra tried to free himself from the other man.

Grimmjow panted heavily, smoking had really started to ruin his lungs.

"Just listen to me, Ulquiorra!"

The raven haired short man looked at him coldly. "Why should I?"

"Because…I'm…I'm sorry. I'm sorry about what I said to you when we last saw."

Ulquiorra sighed and pulled his wrist out of Grimmjow's touch. "I don't want to see you."

Grimmjow looked totally defeated. He stared at the ground and his tanned shoulders dropped a bit. "I'm sorry", he whispered. Something inside Ulquiorra made the musician feel horrible. He could sense that he had really hurt the other. But so had Grimmjow hurt him before. Ulquiorra didn't know what to do. He wanted to escape from the situation, but he wanted to apologize to Grimmjow, too.

The pale musician with black-and-white lips stepped nearer the famous shop-manager. "I am sorry, too."

Grimmjow looked at him, not understanding what he meant.

"You said that you hated me, back then. I have been thinking about your words very much afterwards. I don't believe it anymore."

"Yeah?" Grimmjow's usual grin was back. "I just got mad at you. I didn't really mean all those things."

Ulquiorra nodded, the smallest smile sneaked on his thin lips. He felt unimaginably happy.

It was quiet in the small street they were at. There was no one else. Ulquiorra was silent. Grimmjow stared at the ground, thinking about something.

"Hey…Do you want to see my home? It's quite near here." Grimmjow's voice was quieter than normal, usually he spoke very loudly.

Ulquiorra shrugged, he had nothing against the other man's suggestion. It felt a bit weird, they hadn't seen each other for three years and now Grimmjow asked Ulquiorra to visit his home.

They walked in silence, Grimmjow a couple of steps ahead. They stopped in front of a hotel looking apartment block. "So, here it is", the muscular man said. He opened the front door with a key he took from his pocket of his jeans. Then they took the elevator to the eleventh floor. It appeared that whole the top floor was all Grimmjow's. The apartment was enormous. The furniture was stylish and luxurious-looking. The main colors of the apartment were white and blue.

"Do you want to drink something," Grimmjow asked. Ulquiorra didn't answer to the blue-haired man; he was looking around, and wasn't really feeling thirsty.

Ulquiorra found Grimmjow's bedroom. It was huge, and the bed was right in the middle of the room. It had white silk sheets and light blue pillows. Grimmjow's scent was everywhere in this room.

"Do you like it?"

Ulquiorra turned around and saw Grimmjow right behind him, he hadn't heard his steps. The muscular man held a glass of vodka in his hand.

Ulquiorra didn't know what happened next, but he suddenly found himself lying on Grimmjow's bed, and Grimmjow was kissing him. He didn't want to stop, even if it felt both wrong and right at the same time.

It felt good.

* * *

_Author's Notes: Hello,hello,hello! Sorry the uploading took so long...I have been away. This is the second last part of the Bittersweet Melody, and I hope you have enjoyed it this far. I have some new ideas for my next fanfics, but I'm planning to wrote also an IkkiTousen fic, so the GrimmUlqui/UlquiGrimm won't uploaded so often. _


	5. Chapter 5

_Author's Note: So, finally, here is the last chapter of The Bittersweet Melody. I hope you all have enjoyed this quite short story. Some horrible things happened in my mundane life, so writing this took pretty long, and I apologize for that. I hope I'll see your great reviews in my next stories too. They really save my day._

_Please enjoy, comment and review!_

It was a perfect, sunny day outside. The quiet wind swept through Ulquiorra's front yard. The door was open, so the fresh air would visit the ex-musicians house. Beautiful tunes came from the house, Ulquiorra was playing the piano.

Ulquiorra still loved playing his white piano, but somehow it felt nowadays different. Maybe it was because of Grimmjow moving in to Ulquiorra's house. The musician didn't need the piano to ease his lonely emptiness, he had Grimmjow now.

They were like any normal couple, they had their fights and own problems, but to them the world seemed a lot better place when they stood next to each other. Even if Grimmjow wasn't really the type to say out loud 'I love you', Ulquiorra knew that those sweet little things Grimmjow did for him meant, that he loved the pale man deeply.

"_Grimmjow, I love you."_

_The tanned man had just arrived home after a tiring day at work. He found Ulquiorra waiting for him next to the door of his apartment. The pale, short man held a white rose on his hand._

_A smile appeared on Grimmjow's face; he took a step forward and held Ulquiorra on his arms. _

"_Same goes for you."_

_That was the first time they had talked about their feelings for each other. Two weeks afterwards Grimmjow moved to live together with Ulquiorra in the ex-musicians house._

"I'm home!"

The pianist stopped playing when he heard these words. He got up from his chair and went to greet his beloved. Grimmjow was taking his shoes off; now that it was summer he didn't bother to use shoes at home.

"How was your day? Was it busy at the shop?"

"Usual, actually…The people will go totally mad next week, when the summer sales begin. How was your day?"

Ulquiorra shrugged, his silky hair shone in the sunlight. "As usual, I did not feel like doing anything special today."

The man with electric-blue hair and the eyes colored like the ocean wasn't satisfied with this answer. "Really? What have you been doing all day?"

The short man put his hands to his pockets, and looked away. "I played the piano."

Grimmjow frowned. "You did that for, like, nine hours?!"

"Yes", that was the quiet answer from the black-and-white lips.

The muscular, tanned man sighed and stepped closer to kiss Ulquiorra.

"You've been playing a lot lately, Ulquiorra", Grimmjow whispered gently. "You must really miss your job. Is there anything else you would like to do than playing?"

Ulquiorra looked deeply into Grimmjow's sea-blue eyes. "I've never done anything else, I do not know."

"You should get a job, or you'll be bored to death while I'm working, you know?"

Ulquiorra agreed, and then leaned to Grimmjow's chest. The black-haired man closed his eyes, remembering something he had forgotten. "We do not have anything to eat at the moment; I did not remember to make anything."

Grimmjow just grinned, and said: "It's okay. Actually, I was going to ask you, if you wanted to eat out tonight. I feel like tacos."

Ulquiorra let a smile find its way to his lips. "Tacos? I do not even remember when I ate those last…"

Grimmjow's grin widened. "Shall we go, then? I'm really hungry."

The restaurant they stopped in front of was not a taco place. It was the latest and finest restaurant of the town.

"I don't think it would be romantic, if I asked this at Taco Heaven, you know." Grimmjow said and took a small white box from his pocket. "Ulquiorra Schiffer, I ask this once, and once only; will you marry me?"

Ulquiorra stared at the simple ring in front of him. It was gold, and two tiny diamonds, green and blue, were placed to it. He didn't take the ring to his finger, he just looked at it.

Grimmjow waited for the answer for almost two minutes. Ulquiorra lifted his eyes from the beautiful object and looked straight in Grimmjow's eyes. "I will."

Grimmjow took the ring and placed it to Ulquiorra's finger.

_**The End**_


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